Description
Book SynopsisRobert Lecker explores the ways in which these anthologies contributed to the formation of a Canadian literary canon, the extent to which this canon was tied to an ideal of English-Canadian nationalism, and the material conditions accounting for the anthologies' production.
Trade Review'Keepers of the Code shines as a work of critically informed literary history, deftly historicizing a surprisingly broad tradition of anthologies, mapping their shifting priorities, and demystifying the forces behind their compilation...It will rightly become a key study for discussion of literary anthologies in Canada.' -- Robert Zacharias Canadian Literature Spring 2014 'This lively study illuminates the history and constitution of Canadian literature... A reward of reading Lecker is the salutary realization that Canadian writing is vaster and stranger than is often acknowledged. -- Nicholas Bradley The Bull Calf: Reviews in Fiction, Poetry, and Literary Criticism December 2015 'Lecker shows admirable objectivity as he guides the reader through the history of the Can Lit anthology... The result is a perfect combination of cannon-questioning and imagining Canada through literature... Fascinating study... Lecker's book is admirable in all regards.' -- Jason Blake Southern Journal of Canadian Studies, vol 6:01:2015 'Keepers of the Code is admirable in its ability to place work in a material context... Particularly impressive are Lecker's personal interventions in the narrative... Lecker also excels at recognizing continuities.' -- Tim McIntyre University of Toronto Quarterly vol 84:03:2015
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction 1. Nineteenth-Century Anthologies and the Making of Canadian Literature, 1837-1900 2. Representations of Nation: Watson and Pierce's Our Canadian Literature, 1900-1922 3. Anthologies between the Wars, 1922-1943 4. From The Book of Canadian Poetry to New Wave Canada, 1943-1966 5. Nation Making, Nation Breaking, 1967-1982 6. Solidifying the Canadian Canon, 1982-1996 7. Keeping the Code, 1996-2010 Works Cited
